Fade Away
by Spellman
Summary: When Sarah returns, she soon finds that she did not win at all. One-Shot.


**Fade Away **

Another wave goodbye and they were finally done for the night. Sarah smiled into the mirror, noting the slight wreckage behind her in the room. Streamers, confetti, and a few feathers lingered here and there. No matter. She was home and Toby was safe and she had made so many new friends that she could call in an instant. She had escaped the clutches of the Goblin King.

She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and paused, frowning into the mirror. The top part of her right ear seemed blurry. She shut her eyes tight and blinked, looking away. The clock read 3:09 AM. Great, on top of goblins and fairies, she was starting to see things as well. She'd clean the mess in the morning. Time for bed.

An owl hooted as she fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Sarah looked into the mirror again, only now both ears and her fingertips seemed blurry. She looked down in shock. "What…?"

"I always win, Sarah," a voice said from the mirror. Sarah whipped her head back up and saw, not her reflection, but the Goblin King once more.

Sarah frowned, her wide eyes betraying her alarm. "You have no power over me," she said in a low voice back to him.

Jareth grinned a pointy smile and laughed with evil glee. "Oh, but my dear, there are powers far beyond my own that have taken hold of you long before you uttered those words to me."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded.

"Why don't you know? Someone as clever as you should know what happens when a mortal eats the food of the Fae."

Sarah's eyes grew wider. "I didn't accept food from you!"

"No, but you did accept a peach from your dear, dwarf friend. And _that_ he received from me. How else would you fall into your dreams, precious?"

Sarah looked down at her slowly fading fingers. She could no longer live in her world. The only option was-

"Come with me, Sarah." Jareth stepped through the glass and held and outstretched hand to her. "You will never be able to live here again. You're mine."

Sarah shook her head and then paled. "Did… did Toby eat the-"

"No. You did rescue him successfully. But you, I did take," Jareth looked at her, hand still outstretched, his eyes dark with greed.

From the other room, Toby wailed, awake and hungry, and Sarah heard her parents shuffle in their morning routines. Tears rolled down Sarah's face. She may have saved Toby, but she would never see her family again.

"Will they remember me?" she sobbed. She had worked so hard and fought so long and her whole world was being taken from her by the sadistic king before her.

"No. You will fade from existence, in memory and physically."

"Sarah!" her stepmother called. "Breakfast is ready!" She could hear dishes now and her father speaking in happy tones to Toby who was gurgling happily back.

As Sarah looked at the door helplessly, she could already tell her room was changing. Her possessions were beginning to disappear as well, leaving a bare room that could serve as a guest bedroom. She would no longer exist to them once she had disappeared for good.

She could see through her arms slightly now.

"Come now!" Jareth commanded. "You will cease being in moments." He grabbed her arm in order to tow his possession through the mirror with him, but she wrenched herself out of his grasp.

"No!" she cried, her voice echoing as if she were far away from him. She had another choice. One that made sure that he would never win, even if it meant that she would lose entirely.

Jareth looked at her alarmed. "Don't be stupid, you silly girl!" He reached for her again but she backed out of reach and ran to the far side of the bed to keep her distance from him.

"You didn't win, Goblin King," she sobbed again, her voice a whisper on the wind even though she was shouting at him. Her entire body was transparent; she looked like a ghostly being from a world further than even the Underground.

"No, don't do this, Sarah!" Jareth growled, making a last ditch effort to grab her by lunging across her bed. She sidestepped his every move, determined not to be caught. She backed to a wall, crying so hard, looking at the bewildered man before her.

"You didn't win," her voice echoed once more.

And the girl that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with vanished from his sight forever.


End file.
